Monday, May 20, 2013

RE: Fort Worth man dies after being shocked by policeTaserCommentary by Eddie Griffin

A disabled African-Americanman was tasered to death by the Fort Worth Police Department. Jermaine Darden, age34, a 300-pound asthmatic on a breathing machine, was wrestled to the floor andtased, after police kicked in his unlocked front door on a “no-knock” warrant. Officersclaimed he was resisting arrest when he would not comply with their order to rollover on his stomach. But family members claimed the man was having breathing problems,which were especially aggravated when he tries to lie on his stomach.

Darden’s mother, Donna Randledescribes what happen: “When they came in, they hadtheir weapons drawn like we were members of a drug cartel. There were sixpeople who told the police the man had health problems, yet they continued todo what they did.”

She is nowasking why the police had to “use such excessive force.”

The incidenttook place in the same neighborhood where Michael Jacobs, Jr., a 24-year old mentallychallenged African-American, was tasered to death by police in April, 2009. TheCity of Fort Worth eventually had to pay a $2 million settlement to the family.

Darden would bethe seventh taser related death in the city’s history.

There have beenseveral attempts by the community to reconcile with the FWPD over raciallycharged excessive force issues. The problem with taser related deaths shouldhave been settled when Chief of Police Jeff Halstead negotiated with TASERInternational, the maker of the stun guns, to modify the design of their taserproduct, which would allow an automatic shut off after a 5-second burst. Butchange the weapon’s shut-off system does not change police abusive practices inits deployment. Tasers still kill, with or without a 5-second shutoff. And Dardenis the second taser related death since Michael Jacobs, Jr.

It should beevident here of a violation of police policy. According the WFAA 8 Jim Douglasreport, the weapon was deployed multiple times. What is not clear is whether oneofficer used the override on the 5-second cutoff or whether several tasers weredeployed at once. The incident is still under investigation.

Besides FWPDpolicy, whether officers complied with it or not, there are serious humanrights and constitutional questions about the right of the accused, and thenature of the heavy-handed gang buster tactics.

Human Rightsadvocates have always contended tasers to be torture in violation of the EightAmendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. A victim being stunnedby 50,000 volts of electricity is equivalent to being electrocuted by highvoltage utility wires, or comparable to the electric chair.

Moreimportantly, however, is that a person has the right to life. No one should besummarily executed by electrocution at the whims of a law enforcement officer.This violates the First Amendment Right to life, and the Sixth Amendment Rightto Due Process.

It would befruitless, however, to argue constitutional rights issues with the same agency guiltyof the violations. If the agency cannot enforce its own policy and the Cityunable to protect the public, then monetary retribution should be exacted asheavily as possible. Corrections can and will be made, if liabilities for abusesof authority began to cost more than the City can willingly afford.

Of course, littledefense can be offer for Derrick Anthony Birdow who was tasered todeath while in the act of killing a preacher. Some might rationalize his death asjustifiable in the heat of the moment. But the point still stands: Tasers kill.And multiple jolts of 50,000 volts of electricity will kill with surety,something every FWPD officer should know. Thus, the killing of Darden shouldnot have come as a complete surprise to the deploying officer or officers.

Someone needs to be heldaccountable. First, there is the officer or officers who deployed the weapon orweapons. Was he or she or they criminally negligent? If they had full knowledgeof the Michael Jacobs tragedy, then they cannot claim ignorance.

Then there is the FWPD itself.Do loopholes in its policy allow for and exonerate such on-the-spot street summaryexecution of suspects, contrary to the constitutional rights of the suspect? Theofficer who tased Michael Jacobs to death claimed she did not know that holdingthe taser trigger down continued to shoot electricity into his body. Nobodyever told her, and TASER International never educated officers about the risks.What excuse can they offer now to exonerate them of their legal and criminalculpability?

The third party is the Cityof Fort Worth, who are obligated to back the police action and cover theirliabilities in cases where excessive force is employed. Shouldn’t they havelearned something from the Jacobs’s case? Didn’t they assure the community thatthis would never happen again where an innocent person would be tasered todeath?

Fourth, there is TASERInternational who falsely advertises tasers are non-lethal weapons. They arethe guiltiest insofar as they leave cities, like Fort Worth, to pick up thepieces, pay off the wrongful death suits, while they continue marketing theirproduct as if it does no harm.

There is a memorial south of Fort Worth filled withcrosses for those killed by tasers, named the Michael C. Jacobs, Jr. Memorial. The official death count nowstands at 779, with a cross for Jermaine Dardento be added. Here is a list of those who died by tasers in Fort Worth:

As for the investigation by theFWPD’s major-case unit and the Department’s heavy-handed “no knock” tactic thatallowed the police to kick open a family’s “unlocked door”, under the pretextof a big drug raid that eventually cost this disabled man his life, let’s see whatthey were after and what they netted for their effort:

Five people who werearrested:• [Suspect No. 1], age 25, suspected ofpossessing 1 to 4 grams of a controlled substance and 2 to 4 ounces ofmarijuana.• [Suspect No. 2], age 22, suspected ofpossessing less than 2 ounces of marijuana. Police also found that [Suspect No. 2] was wanted on twowarrants from other jurisdictions.• [Suspect No. 4], age 27, accused ofevading arrest and detention. [SuspectNo. 4] also had a warrant.• [Suspect No. 5], age 29, and [Suspect No. 6], age 29, both with classC warrants from Fort Worth. [Suspect No.6], who identified herself as Darden’s cousin, said she has an unpaidticket for talking on a cellphone while driving in a school zone.

In a police report, OfficerN.B. Danford was the one who drafted the probable-cause warrant to search forcocaine at the house. The “no-knock” warrant was signed by Tarrant CountyMagistrate Cheyenne Minick at 3:35 p.m. Thursday, according to the report.

The investigation should notbegin with the suspects, because there was never any really “big fish” in thisexpedition, only a few misdemeanor guppies at worst. So they kick down anunlocked door and kill a man for the above probable-causes.

No, the investigation shouldbegin at the determination level of probable cause and a criminal justicesystem that allows a magistrate who signed off on a “no-knock”(kick-the-door-down) raid to bag a few petty misdemeanor offenders.